ISLAMABAD  -  Almost all former federal and state ministers have vacated official residences allocated to them in the Ministers’ Enclave as the last date for vacating the residences was July 31, an official in the Cabinet Division said.

Similarly, the MNAs belonging to various political parties, who had lost the July 25 general election, started vacating their official residences at Federal Lodges.

Prominent among those who had vacated the residences in Ministers’ Enclave included Ahsan Iqbal, Khurram Dastagir Khan, Barjees Tahir, Sheikh Aftab Ahmad. Some of the ministers of PML-N government had not availed the facility like former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and a few others preferred to stay in their personal houses in the federal capital.

Abbasi, even did not stay at the Prime Minister’s House, following the disqualification of former premier Nawaz Sharif as member of the Parliament.

Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman was perhaps the only Parliamentarian who had a record stay at Ministers’ Colony as he stepped in the official bungalow soon after 1997 general elections.

He was made Chairman Kashmir Committee of the Parliament and for the first time the chairman of the committee was given the status of the federal minister.

Even after the coup in October 1999, Rehman kept the occupation of the residence for quite some time and he become eligible for it again after 2002 general elections when he become Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly from the platform of Muttahida Malis-i-Amal. Since then, he remained part of the next two governments of PPP and PML-N respectively and stayed at the same Bungalow No. 29 at the Ministers’ Enclave.

An official at Cabinet Division said that right now, the Pakistan Works Department was in the process of whitewashing and repairing of the vacated houses so that the same could be allotted to the new entrants.

However, the official residence of the speaker National Assembly was still in the use of Sardar Ayaz Sadiq as he would be holding the position of the speaker till the oath-taking of new the new speaker National Assembly. He would then be given a couple of weeks to vacate the official residence.

As the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would be in the process of forming the government and the members of the upcoming federal and State ministers would be allotted the residences at the Ministers’ Enclave.